It was acclaimed by critics for its impressive visuals, gameplay and overall presentation, and is seen as being important and influential. An updated version with the addition of throttle controls, After Burner II, was released later the same year.Īfter Burner was a worldwide commercial success, becoming Japan's second highest-grossing large arcade game of 1987 and overall arcade game of 1988 as well as among America's top five highest-grossing dedicated arcade games of 1988. It was designed outside the company in a building named 'Studio 128', due to Sega adopting a flextime schedule to allow for games to be worked outside company headquarters. Suzuki was inspired by the 1986 films Top Gun and Laputa: Castle in the Sky he originally planned for the game to have a steampunk aesthetic similar to Laputa, but instead went with a Top Gun look to make the game approachable for worldwide audiences.

Development began in December 1986, shortly after the completion of Out Run, and was kept as a closely guarded secret within the company. ĭesigned by Sega veteran Yu Suzuki and the Sega AM2 division, After Burner was intended as being Sega's first 'true blockbuster' video game. The cabinet simulates an aircraft cockpit, with flight stick controls, a chair with seatbelt, and hydraulic motion technology that moves, tilts, rolls and rotates the cockpit in sync with the on-screen action.

It is the fourth Sega game to use a hydraulic 'taikan' motion simulator arcade cabinet, one that is more elaborate than their earlier 'taikan' simulator games. It runs on the Sega X Board arcade system which is capable of surface and sprite rotation. The game uses a third-person perspective, as in Sega's earlier Space Harrier (1985) and Out Run (1986). The plane is equipped with a machine gun and a limited supply of heat-seeking missiles. The player controls an American F-14 Tomcat fighter jet and must clear each of the game's eighteen unique stages by destroying incoming enemies.

After Burner is a rail shooter arcade video game developed and released by Sega in 1987.

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